Age of Mass Politics 1871-1914

1
Age of Mass Politics 1871-1914

• Chapter 22-23

2
Overview

• Ordinary people felt increasing loyalty to their
  governments
• By 1914 universal male suffrage was the rule
• Female suffrage emerged after WWI
• Politicians and parties in national govt
  represented the people more responsibly
• Increased literacy
• Governments often led by conservatives who
  manipulated nationalism

3
New Institutions

• Trade Unions
• Became fully legal in Britain in 1871 France in
  1884 Germany 1890
• Minimal political influence
• Focused on organizing skilled workers and
  improvement of wages and working conditions
• Later industrial unions for unskilled labor
• Opposed by employers
• Long strikes
• Most of Europe remained non-union
• But a new form of collective association to
  confront economic difficulties and improve
  security

4
New Institutions

• Democracy and Political Parties
• Broad based electoral systems by late 19th
  century (except Russia)
• Britain voting reform act in 1867 and 1884
• Germany and Bismarck universal male suffrage in
  1871
• French Chamber of Deputies democratically elected
• Meant government could no longer ignore workers
  and unhappy citizens
• Organization of Political Parties
• Vied for members

5
German Empire 1871-1914

• Government structure
• Federal union of Prussia and 24 smaller German
  states
• Kaiser Wilhelm I held ultimate power
• Otto von Bismarck served as chancellor
• Bicameral legislature Reichstag
• Bundestag
• Bundesrat
• Multi-party system
• Conservatives represented the Junkers of Prussia
• Center Party (Catholic)
• Social Democratic Party
• Middle-class left out of politics during this era

6
German Empire 1871-1914

• Germany under Bismarck
• Integrated political and economic structure
• Unified monetary system
• Established Imperial Bank
• Developed universal German civil and criminal
  codes
• Established compulsory military service
• Kulturkampf (Struggle for civilization)
• Bismarck sought to limit influence of Catholic
  Center Party strong in the south (most northern
  German states were Protestant)
• Bismarck instituted a set of sweeping reforms to
  minimize threat from the left

7
Germany Social Democrats and Revisionism

• German Social Democratic Party (SDP) 1875
• Policy of permanent hostility to non-socialist
  governments
• Organizational success kept Marxism alive
• Founding fathers Ferdinand Lasalle (reform),
  Wilhelm Liebknecht, and August Bebel (revolution)
• Bismarck and the SPD
• 12 years of persecution anti-socialist
  legislation
• Legislation proved counter productive
• Social welfare legislation
• 1883 health insurance measure
• 1884 accident insurance
• 1889 retirement and disability pensions
• Paternalistic and conservative alternative to
  socialism
• Social security program first industrial nation
  to have this kind of program

8
Germany Social Democrats and Revisionism

• William II
• Emperor William II allowed antisocialist
  legislation to expire
• Opposed Bismarcks move to outlaw the SPD
• Forced him to resign to gain support of workers
• Socialists next move
• Erfurt Program predicted doom of capitalism and
  necessity of socialist ownership of the means of
  production
• Intended to use reform not revolution
• Immediate task was to improve lives of workers
  rather than overthrow government
• SPD worked within the system became largest
  party in the Reichstag by 1912

9
Third French Republic

• Established in 1875
• Largely dominated by the bourgeoisie
• Constitution provided for a republic
• Chamber of Deputies (elected)
• President was weak
• Senate indirectly elected
• Republican party
• Led by Leon Gambetta
• Established parliamentary supremacy
• Reforms
• Legalized trade unions
• Established secular education

• Multi-party system ever-shifting political
  coalitions
• Challenge from conservatives
• Boulanger Crisis (1887-1889)
• Panama scandal (1892)
• Dreyfus Affair (1894)

10
France Opportunism Rejected

• Less united socialist party
• Two major factions
• Jaurès
• Socialists should cooperate with middle-class
  Radical ministries
• Guesde
• Could not support bourgeois cabinet
• Dryfuss Affair
• 1899 in effort to unite supporters of Dryfuss,
  Prime Minister Renè Waldeck-Rousseau appointed
  socialist Alexander Millerand to cabinet

• French labor movement uninterested in parties and
  socialism
• Main labor union Confédération Générale du
  Travail 1895
• Rival to socialist parties embraced doctrine of
  Georges Sorel in Reflections on Violence (1908)
• General strike as tool to unite workers and gain
  them power
• Increase in strikes met with military suppression
• Ultimately Juarès gained seats in Chamber of
  Deputies from 1905 to 1914
• Third Republic enjoyed vast support of the French
  People

11
Great Britain

• 1850-1865 realignment of political parties
• Lord Palmerston (1784-1865)
• Whig prime minister and dominant political figure
  
• Tory Party transformed to Conservative Party
• Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)
• Whig party transformed to Liberal Party
• William Gladstone (1809-1898)
• Other major contributor John Bright
• Democratic expansion under Disraeli and Gladstone

12
Great Britain

• Benjamin Disraeli
• Argued for aggressive foreign policy, expansion
  of British Empire, and reluctant support of
  democratic reforms
• Influenced by John Stuart Mill
• Reform Bill of 1867
• leap in the dark
• Appeal to working people
• Expanded Reform Bill of 1832
• Redistributed seats for more even representation
  in House of Commons
• Almost universal suffrage (males over 21)
• Reduced govt regulation of trade unions in 1875
• Created regulations for improved sanitation

13
Great Britain

• William Gladstone
• Most important liberal figure in 19th century
  England
• Supported Irish Home Rule, fiscal policy, free
  trade, extension of democratic principles,
  opposed imperialism
• Abolished compulsory taxes to support Church of
  England
• Australian Ballot Act 1872
• secret ballot
• Civil service reform 1870
• Competitive examination for govt positions
• Reform Act of 1884 (Representation of the People
  Act)
• Votes for agricultural workers

14
Great Britain

• Fabianism and Early Welfare Programs
• New Unionism
• Trade unions grew
• Supported Liberal Party candidates
• Organized unskilled laborers
• The Labour Party 1901
• 1906 sent 29 members to Parliament
• Still a rise in strikes as unions become more
  militant
• More government intervention

• The Fabian Society
• Most influential socialist group in England
• Took its name from Q. Fabius Maximus, Roman
  general
• Gradualistic approach to reform
• Leading members Sidney and Beatrice Webb, H.G.
  Wells, Graham Wallas, and George Bernard Shaw
• Wanted to educate public to socialist reform
  gas-and-water socialism

15
Great Britain

• British government, Liberal and Conservative
  parties responded slowly
• 1903 Joseph Chamberlain
• finance social reform through higher import
  duties
• Split the conservative party
• Liberal Reforms
• 1906-1908 restored the protection of labor unions
• Right to strike
• 1909 broad program of social legislation
• Established labor exchanges, regulated certain
  trades and passed National Insurance Act of 1911
• Unemployment benefits and health care
• Compulsory school attendance

• Conflict between House of Commons and House of
  Lords
• Over financing new programs
• Increased tax on wealthy to help fund the welfare
  state
• Parliament Act of 1911
• Most significant legislation of Liberal party
  rule
• allowed Commons to override veto of Lords
• State was taking expanded role in lives of
  citizens
• Representation of the People Act 1918
• Women over 30 gained suffrage
• Property qualifications completely eliminated

16
Womens Rights and Suffrage in England

• Initially sought to amend marriage and property
  laws
• By 1890s, womens rights activists realized that
  suffrage was the key to remedying other problems
• Suffragettes came largely from middle class
• Benefitted from education
• Free time to become activists
• Working-class women and socialists worked
  independently

17
Womens Rights and Suffrage in England

• Millicent Garrett Fawcett (1847-1929)
• Leader of National Union of Womens Suffrage
  Societies (NUWSS)
• Fought for suffrage and helped grow the movement
• Knighted in 1924
• Emmeline Pankhurst
• Leader of militant suffragettes
• Along with her daughter, founded the Womens
  social and Political Union (WSPU)
• 1907 began violent activities such as destroying
  railroad stations, works of art and store
  windows, and chaining themselves to gate in front
  of Parliament
• Organized parades and demonstrations
• Arrested for their activities
• Representation of the People Act 1918
• Result of womens critical contributions to the
  war effort vote for women over 30
• Reform Act of 1928
• Suffrage for women over 21

18
The Irish Question

• Young Ireland movement 1848
• Ulster (Protestant counties in northern Ireland)
• Opposed Irish Home Rule
• Raised 100,000 armed volunteers by 1913
• Supported by British public opinion
• 1914 Irish Home Rule Act passed
• 1916 Easter Rebellion
• 1922 Ireland gained independence
• Northern Ireland remained part of British Empire

19
The Eastern Question 1870s

• The Ottoman Empire
• The Sick Man of Europe
• Constant state of crisis in the Balkans
• Question of who would control the region
• Russia or Austro-Hungarian Empire
• Pan-Slavism
• Idea of uniting all Slave in Europe under one
  govt (Russia)
• Britain refused to accept Russian control and
  sent Royal Navy to help Turks
• jingoism
• Bismarck offered to mediate crisis

20
The Eastern Question 1870s

• Congress of Berlin 1878
• Russia gained little despite defeating the Turks
• Provisions
• Recognition of Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro as
  independent states
• Establishment of autonomous principality of
  Bulgaria
• Austrian acquisition of Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Transfer of Cyprus to Great Britain
• Close to Suez Canal
• Rise in hostility from Russia toward Germany
• New system of alliances formed

21
Socialist Movements

• Negative response to industrialism and
  nationalism
• Rise of socialist party
• Problems were transnational unite working class
  internationally
• Main goal advancer the cause of the proletariat
  throughout Europe
• Reform or Revolution?
• Shaped socialist thought, party programs and
  political behavior, and influenced the larger
  political arena

22
Karl Marx and the First International

• 1864 foundation of first International Working
  Mens Association (known as the First
  International)
• Marx was principal organizer
• Socialists, anarchists, and Polish nationalists
• Marx approved reform efforts
• In private he criticized reform activity
• Paris Commune
• Marx called a genuine proletarian uprising
• Promoted anti-socialist legislation and sentiment
• First International moved headquarters to U.S. in
  1873 and was disbanded in 1876

23
Karl Marx and the First International

• Marxism emerged as the most important strand of
  socialism
• Scientific characteristic made it appealing
• Deeply impressed German socialists most powerful
  party in Europe
• Also involved the influence of non-Marxist
  socialists in Great Britain

24
Revisionism

• Workers gained right to vote and participate
  politically
• Attention to elections rather than revolutions
• Standard of living rose
• Government acceptance of labor unions
• Focus on bread-and-butter issues
• Wages, hours, working conditions
• Genuine collective bargaining
• Eduard Bernstein Evolutionary Socialism 1899
• Most prominent socialist revisionist
• Argued Marxs predictions of ever-greater poverty
  for workers and concentration of wealth in fewer
  hands was proven false

25
Anarchists

• Spin off from mainstream socialist movement
• Sought to destroy centralized state
• Mikhail Bakunin
• Russian nobleman, leading anarchist
• Strongest in Spain and Italy
• Political assassinations
• Alexander II of Russia 1881
• King Umberto I of Italy 1900
• President William McKinley of U.S. 1901

26
Russia

• Defeat in Crimean War marked turning point
• Lacked sizable middle class
• Had to modernize or would remain vulnerable
  militarily and economically
• Alexander II (1855-1881)
• Perhaps most liberal ruler prior to 20th century
• Serfdom had slowed modernization
• Emancipation Act 1861

• Peasants no longer dependent on lord free to
  move and change occupations could enter
  contracts and own property
• Mirs
• Communes which were highly regulated
• Collective ownership and responsibility
• Zemstvos
• Established 1864 assemblies that administered
  local areas
• Significant step to popular participation
• Other reforms
• Judiciary improved
• Censorship relaxed (but not removed)
• Education liberalized

27
Russia

• Railroad construction
• Between 1860 and 1880 mileage grew from 1,250 to
  15,500
• Enabled export of grain and ability to earn
  profits for further industrialization
• Stimulated domestic manufacturing
• Strengthened Russias military

28
Russia

• Critics
• Alexander turned increasingly traditional in
  values
• Radical populist movement emerged sought utopian
  agrarian order
• Intelligensia
• Nihilism
• Alexander II assassinated in 1881 by radicals

29
Russia

• Alexander III (1881-1894)
• Autocracy, Orthodoxy, and Russification
  (nationalism)
• Encouraged anti-semitism (pogroms)
• Theodor Herzl 1897
• Launched the Zionist movement
• Fought to establish a Jewish state in Palestine

30
Russia

• Nicholas II
• Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905)
• Revolution of 1905
• Poor economy and strains of war led peasants and
  middle class to demand reforms
• Bloody Sunday, Jan 1905
• 200,000 worker/peasants marched peacefully to
  Winter Palace
• Czar not in town
• Army fired on marchers
• General Strike paralyzed Russia czar was forced
  to make concessions

• Duma Assembly created as an advisory body to
  Czar
• Granted freedom of speech, assembly, and press
• Czar retained absolute veto
• Revolutionaries divided Duma had no real
  influence
• Propertied classes benefited at expense of
  workers, peasants, and national minorities
• Mild economic recover 1907-1914
• Peter Stolypin pushed agrarian reforms
• Gregorii Rasputin caused widespread doubts about
  czars ability to lead
• Poor showing in WWI led directly to Russian
  Revolution